Taj Mahal is a new 7 wonder

When this email about voting the Taj Mahal into the new "7 world wonders" came back in 2005/06 I thought it was some kind of an elaborate idea used by a website to just increase the number of hits. Sometimes even the BBC uses this kind of online voting to elect superstars of the milennium just to increase website hits and sensationalize something.

Later, sometime in 2006 I also visited the new 7 world wonder website. Just to see if the website already exists. This was because of a jingoistic spam email which declared something like this :-

"Shame on Indians, everyone is voting but our Taj is far behind...Vote for Taj Mahal in the new7wonders.com website and help it make into the new 7 world... Jai India!!"

Later, I checked out the website. The only thing which caught my eye was :-

The New 7 Wonders of the World were announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.

07-07-07 was a neat idea and it was pretty far away (in 2006). I also thought they had organized an event for it. Good.

Somewhere during early July, I began rj's asking people to login and vote and convincing people that your vote counts. And then Media Coverage in CNN-IBN and NDTV and then, the Leaders asking people to sms/vote. Woah...This was a little too much.

Not just in India, governments and prime ministers across the world are urged people to vote their own country!!!

But I wondered what was the motivation of the organization ( The New7Wonders Foundation) , which organized an event in Lisbon calling many famous personalities across the globe to announce the wonders.

The New7Wonders Foundation, which is the body behind the New7Wonders campaign, has the express aim of documenting, maintaining, restoring and reconstructing world heritage under the motto: "OUR HERITAGE IS OUR FUTURE."

The Foundation was created in 2001 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, with a mission to protect humankind's heritage across the globe. The initial stages of the New7Wonders campaign were financed by Weber himself, aided by a small number of committed N7W Members.

Okay, now I think it is a very persistent and good cause. Excellent sense of event anagement. I would like to say the same in the case of the Global event "Live Earth Concerts". Tune in to the Live Earth Concerts on Radio Indigo or see it Live! on VH1.For the cause of Live Earth, just visit this link.